


hey now, we'll be okay

by blacksuns (orphan_account)



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Enemies to Lovers to Strangers, Getting Back Together, M/M, quick angst, wedding guests - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22463983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/blacksuns
Summary: To Lee Jaehyun, five years are nowhere near enough to prepare him to see his ex-boyfriend on their best friend’s wedding.
Relationships: Lee Jaehyun | Hyunjae/Lee Sangyeon
Comments: 1
Kudos: 46





	hey now, we'll be okay

**Author's Note:**

> Don't really know what this is. Going through a terrible, terrible writer's block for the past few weeks due to, uh, finals and just life in general. Which sucks. I've been coming up with so many good ideas but this forsaken fandom really demotivates me to post at times and I'm really not sure if I really want to write for TBZ anymore or if I'm just too scared of girlgroup ficdoms to make the move once and for all. Not that anyone will read this, I just want this to be out there. My thoughts and this fic, I mean.
> 
> I need to stop writing about these two in weddings. But I'm... obsessed with weddings and I don't even believe in marriage, you probably know that by now. I'm ~experimenting~ with a new style, so let me know what you think!
> 
> Happy reading! ♡

To most, five years is a substantial amount of time. It’s enough to finish a degree and get a masters, enough to find your true passion and turn your life around for the better, enough to meet the love of your life and decide you want to spend the rest of your life with them. To others, five years is very far from enough time. It’s not enough time to get your life together, not enough to outlive the weird transitionary years that are your early to mid-twenties, not enough to do half the things you’ve envisioned you’d have done by the time you’re 25, and surely not enough to deal with the burden of never meeting the unrealistic expectations you’ve set for yourself before you were old enough to realize what those really meant.

Arguably or not, regardless of one’s very own notions of time, five years is a solid amount of time.

Not too much, not too little. But solid. A solid amount of time.

To Lee Jaehyun, five years are _nowhere near enough_ time to prepare him to see his ex-boyfriend on their best friend’s wedding.

*

Upon seeing Lee Sangyeon, beautiful and radiant and as handsome as ever, chatting with their mutual friend’s mother so casually, because of course he’s good with everything and everyone, including tiger moms and possibly the scariest woman Jaehyun has ever encountered, Jaehyun runs to the nearest restroom and pukes on his brand new shoes. He decides that hiding in the restroom for the rest of the welcome cocktail part is better than the prospect of risking running into Sangyeon, and Jacob Bae has enough friends and groomsmen to make up for his absence. No one will notice that one of the groomsmen went missing.

The sleek black patent oxfords he picked out especially for this occasion are now ruined, and he feels awful for spending so much money on shoes it took them less than two hours on his feet to ruin. Maybe he should’ve skipped lunch instead of having agreed going out for Indian food with Changmin from work earlier. Maybe he could just… sit on the toilet seat for the rest of the night and leave unnoticed before anyone.

He needs to calm down. Yeah. Okay.

So he takes off his shoes, drops them on the sink and tries his best to scrub off the stains, because he’s had enough of pitying himself. He spent 200,000 won on these shoes, and he isn’t going to let his own panic ruin these beauties. It’s okay, he can salvage the shoes, he just needs time and… Yeah. He just needs to make time for it.

There’s a soft knock on the door, and a muffled voice asks, “Hey, is everything okay? You’ve been there for a while, man. Do you need anything?”

“Hey, uh, thanks for asking! I’m fine, thank you, it’s just that I’m experiencing a… uh… outfit malfunction. I’ll be out in a second!”

“I have a sewing kit,” The stranger offers, “If you need, of course.”

“It’s okay, thank you!” Jaehyun politely declines, patting dry his shoes as quickly as he can. The stranger goes silent, so Jaehyun assumes it’s now safe for him to quietly sneak out of the restroom and run back to his car. He opens the door and is faced with Sangyeon staring at him with concern on his face. Of course. Of course he has to run into Sangyeon when he’s looking like a hot mess, with vomit on his shoes and sweat running down his face.

“Excuse me, I have somewhere to be right now,” Jaehyun urges, rushing past Sangyeon quickly enough, hoping to go unnoticed.

“Wait, Jaehyun? _Lee Jaehyun?_ Is that you?”

“Sorry, I have to go.”

*

Jaehyun meets Sangyeon in a cramped Technical Drawing 1 class at 8 in the morning his first semester in university and it’s hate at first sight. The class consists half of architecture students, half of civil engineering students, and of course that out of all the civil engineering students Jaehyun could be paired with, he gets paired up for the class project with Sangyeon. They argue over anything and everything, and even though their classmates and even their lecturer offer them to switch groups, they were both too stubborn to give up. Somehow – read: after one too many drinks, aggressive makeout sessions and drunk handjobs in the uni’s bar restroom stall – they manage to ace the project and finish the semester top of the class.

No one quite believes that they’re dating when they decide to make their relationship public. Jaehyun’s friends, Jacob included, have a good laugh at the thought of someone like Jaehyun dating someone like Sangyeon, because they spent an entire semester at each other’s throats and now suddenly they’ve liked each other for months and decided to date? _Unrealistic._ It’s kind of hard to believe. But they do end up biting their tongues when Sangyeon decides to stop being antisocial for one night to go out and socialize with Jaehyun’s group of friends, and it turns out that yes, they are dating. Jaehyun’s friends interrogate Sangyeon to no end.

Sangyeon is a good guy with kind eyes, soft hands and a voice that settles something inside Jaehyun’s chest, who loves music and singing and babies, and he’s everything 18-year-old Jaehyun could ever dream of. They talk about the future, about their jobs and promising careers, about having kids and building a family, and Jaehyun can’t wait. He feels like he’s hit the jackpot with a guy like Sangyeon, and he truly did.

*

The thing about being a groomsman is that no one tells you about all the time you have to spend with the other groomsmen two months before the wedding so you can plan the bachelor party and deal with all the other wedding related bureaucracies the groom is too busy to deal with. Jaehyun is stuck at lunch with the other four groomsmen, sitting right across the table from Sangyeon, doing his best to avoid eye contact at all costs, while still trying to engage in the planning of Jacob’s bachelor party. The others suggested a presidential suite with strippers and champagne, and Jaehyun surely wishes he had other ideas that didn’t involve the same five things that happen in every bachelor party ever, but he’s too busy avoiding Sangyeon’s inquiring gaze to participate.

They decide to leave the booking of the suite to Jacob’s brother, and the other guys Jaehyun doesn’t know get in charge of finding the strippers. They agree on meeting again in a month, at some other restaurant Jaehyun can’t quite afford, to discuss the logistics of the bachelor party. Jacob’s brother takes the bill for them, and off to his car Jaehyun runs. _Again._

“Hey,” Sangyeon manages to run up to him before Jaehyun is able to hide in the comfort of his car. His voice is quiet and polite, and Jaehyun has missed him so much he wants to cry. Instead, he looks up from his phone and tries to look as uninterested as possible. “What are you doing after this?”

“I’m meeting a client this afternoon,” He lies. He’s going home to watch that stupid romcom he used to watch all the time when they were dating to cry over the old times, but Sangyeon doesn’t need to know that. “Why?”

“Nothing, I… I was just… wondering if we could talk. Go to a café or something. Do you still like Baskin-Robbins? There’s one a few blocks from here.”

“I already have plans. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, just… think about it? _Please?_ ”

“Sure. I’ll think about it.”

*

Jaehyun remembers when Sangyeon left. He remembers feeling so bad about himself for not being half as successful as Sangyeon, only a year older than him, and so jealous that he had accomplished so much while Jaehyun had accomplished barely anything.

He remembers telling Sangyeon he never wanted to see him ever again. Not that he meant it. Not that he really wanted Sangyeon to pack his bags overnight and leave while Jaehyun was asleep. Not that he really hated him as much as he claimed he did. Not that he truly wanted Sangyeon to leave and never speak to Jaehyun again.

But Sangyeon did. And Jaehyun knows why he did.

Jaehyun remembers always thinking Sangyeon was too nice. When he woke up to an empty apartment with nothing but silence and the emptiness Sangyeon’s presence left behind, he wished Sangyeon wouldn’t be so nice. Wished he had put more of a fight rather than being so nice about it and doing what angry Jaehyun wanted. Wished he had fought harder for them. For him.

He spent the past five years wondering if Sangyeon missed him as much as Jaehyun did. And it all comes down to the painful reminiscing of everything they could’ve been if Jaehyun hadn’t been such a coward. Wondering what they could have been if Sangyeon had stayed.

*

“Hey,” Jaehyun isn’t surprised that he still remembers Sangyeon’s number by heart. “Is that Baskin-Robbins date still up?”

He can hear Sangyeon’s laugh from across the line.

“Yeah. It is.”

*

“If you could turn back time and do everything again, would you have stayed?”

“I’m too old to live with regrets, dear,” Sangyeon says, soft but his words still sting, rubbing his thumb across the back of Jaehyun’s hand. “I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

“I forgot how romantic you are, _honey_.”

“Because… I still found my way back to you. So no, I wouldn’t have stayed back then. One way or another, I knew I’d find my way back to you. And I did, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

*

“Please don’t propose to your boyfriend at my wedding.”

“That’d be rude. I’d never do that to you, my dear friend.”

“So you’re not denying that he’s your boyfriend now?” Jacob grins, twirling Jaehyun around the dance floor, “That’s good. You look happy.”

“I am.”

“Good! I’d be sad if you weren’t having a good time, you do know that, right?” He asks, voice a little bit too high, and Kevin is quick to come to Jaehyun’s rescue. Jacob gives his husband a big, drunken smile, and singsongs, “Hey, you.”

“Hey, you,” Kevin says back, removing his husband’s arm from around Jaehyun’s shoulder, and pulling Jacob along with him. “Let’s get you some water.”

Drunk Jacob latches on Kevin’s arm like an octopus, pressing kisses and more kisses to his husband’s face, and they walk away to get Jacob some water as promised.

“Jacob just asked me not to propose at their wedding,” Sangyeon says, putting Jaehyun’s arm around his waist and settling in his arms, “Should I be concerned? Are you going to propose at your best friend’s wedding? Not that I’m not flattered, but that would be kind of rude, honey.”

“How weird. He just asked me the same thing. And I told him the same thing. That it’d be rude of me to propose at his wedding,” Jaehyun murmurs back, lips pressed against the skin of Sangyeon’s neck, “I haven’t even bought the rings yet, though. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“ _Yet?”_

“After they cut the cake, do you want to ditch the party and grab McDonald’s all day breakfast and look for engagement rings back at my place?”

Sangyeon smiles, soft and warm and like home, and Jaehyun’s heart skips one too many beats, “You know me too well.”

**Author's Note:**

> As of now that I've rejoined [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/sanghwall), I'm doing one of those writing memes where you can send any snippet of one of my fics and I'll give you a behind the scenes commentary on the scene or particular snippet so feel free to send anything you'd like and I'll try my best to answer! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! ♡


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